Logistics Support

There exists a class of projects called ''material" projects where the project's deliverable may require maintenance, service, and support after development. This support will continue throughout the life cycle of the deliverable. Providing service to these deliverables is referred to as logistics support.

In the previous section we showed that approximately 85 percent of the deliverable's life-cycle cost has been committed by the end of the design phase (see Figures 14-16 and 14-17). We also showed that the majority of the total life-cycle cost of a system is in operation and support, and could account for well above 60 percent of the total cost. Clearly, the decisions with the greatest chance of affecting life-cycle cost and identifying cost savings are those influencing the design of the deliverable. Simply stated, proper planning and design can save a company hundreds of millions of dollars once the deliverable is put into use.

The two key parameters used to evaluate the performance of materiel systems are supportability and readiness. Supportability is the ability to maintain or acquire the necessary human and nonhuman resources to support the system. Readiness is a measure of how good we are at keeping the system performing as planned and how quickly we can make repairs during a shutdown. Clearly, proper planning during the design stage of a project can reduce supportability requirements, increase operational readiness, and minimize or lower logistics support costs.

The ten elements of logistics support are shown in Figure 14-19 and include:

• Maintenance planning: The process conducted to evolve and establish maintenance concepts and requirements for the lifetime of a materiel system.

• Manpower and personnel: The identification and acquisition of personnel with the skills and grades required to operate and support a materiel system over its lifetime.

• Supply support: All management actions, procedures, and techniques used to determine requirements to acquire, catalog, receive, store, transfer, issue, and dispose of secondary items. This includes provisioning for initial support as well as replenishment supply support.

• Support equipment: All equipment (mobile or fixed) required to support the operation and maintenance of a materiel system. This includes associated multiuse end-items; ground-handling and maintenance equipment; tools, metrology, and calibration equipment; and test and automatic test equipment. It includes the acquisition of logistics support for the support and test equipment itself.

• Technical data: Recorded information regardless of form or character (such as manuals and drawings) of a scientific or technical nature. Computer programs and related software are not technical data; documentation of computer programs and related software are: Also other information related to contract administration.

• Training and training support: The processes, procedures, techniques, training devices, and equipment used to train personnel to operate and support a materiel system. This includes individual and crew training; new equipment training; initial, formal, and on-the-job training; and logistic support planning for training equipment and training device acquisitions and installations.

What you need to know about… Project Management Made Easy! Project management consists of more than just a large building project and can encompass small projects as well. No matter what the size of your project, you need to have some sort of project management. How you manage your project has everything to do with its outcome.